West Brom have to ‘box clever’ in the transfer market – Steve Bruce
This dismal season is nearing its conclusion for West Brom and so attentions can begin to turn towards next season and a crucial transfer window.
The Baggies have already made their first purchase of the summer by making Jayson Molumby’s loan move from Brighton a permanent deal to stay at The Hawthorns.
There is still a lot of work to do though as manager Steve Bruce is all too aware of with plans well underway to overhaul the Albion squad.
“We have had a miserable couple of years. This season has not been good enough. The club got a kicking in the Premier League last season,” Bruce said, as quoted by the Express and Star.
“It would be wrong of me to say there are going to be millions and millions and millions to spend. That’s not going to be the case.
“So we have to box clever a little bit. Huddersfield for example brought 10 players in for next to nothing. They have gone from being 20th in the league to competing for promotion. Nottingham Forest the same. That is the beauty of the Championship.
“We have got to box-clever, be clever with what we do. Recruitment is always key. But we have made big inroads already so there is a long, busy, summer ahead.”
Improvement a must
There is no hiding the fact that this season has been a really poor one for West Bromwich Albion and even though Bruce only arrived in February, he has to take part of the blame for that.
His arrival didn’t spark the resurgence anyone hoped for after Valerien Ismael was sacked with the Baggies fifth in the league and instead, they slid further down towards the bottom half of the table.
This is the biggest summer West Brom will have in years with Premier League parachute payments still incoming to be used in the transfer market and a wage budget to rival anyone in the division.
Mid-table is not acceptable and so Bruce has to get every decision right in both in and out goings to give them a chance of returning to the Premier League, where they belong.
Andy Carroll is already on his way out when his short term deal expires which could be the first blunder considering what he offers but only time will tell.
In other West Brom news, Barnsley will be without three players at least when they visit The Hawthorns on Saturday (7 May) for the final game of the season.
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